(Update) Ex-West Brandywine manager sentenced in forgery case

WEST CHESTER — Ronald Rambo Jr., the former township manager of West Brandywine, was sentenced to a term in Chester County Prison Tuesday of two to 23 months on charges that he submitted fraudulent records to the township for which he received a few hundreds dollars in medical reimbursements.

Common Pleas Court Judge William P. Mahon, who called Rambo, 60, of Coatesville, a “polarizing figure” in the township, said crimes such as those the longtime township official was found guilty of in May, although not of great monetary significance, constituted “an attack on our form of government.”

The judge said his sentence would have been as much as twice as long had he not taken into account Rambo’s 30-plus years of service to the residents of West Brandywine, first as road manager and then as township manager. But he said incarceration was necessary to insure public confidence.

“It indicates to the public that if you step off the tracks when you are in public service, jail time is warranted,” Mahon said. “I find this situation, a conviction for someone in your position, very troubling. It is a darn shame for someone who has spent so much time in public service. But it is what it is.”

Advertisement

The graying, balding Rambo tried to apologize for his actions but the prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Pierce, was not convinced. Rambo’s sentence includes five years of probation and 100 hours of community service.

Mahon declined to act on Pierce’s request that Rambo be barred from township property or from further municipal activity, but suggested to the defendant that was something he might decide to do on his own, referring to Rambo’s current position as manager of the West Brandywine Municipal Authority.

Reading from a prepared statement, Rambo told Mahon before he was sentenced that he realized “that I am solely responsible” for the phony reimbursement forms he submitted in 2010 to a doctor, a dentist, and a local pharmacy. He had initially laid the blame on “carelessness.”

“The jury has spoken and I accept the jury’s verdict,” he said. “I always tried to make the right decision, although these were bad ones. I hope at some point in the future that I will be able to make it up to the township. I must live with what I have done.”

But Rambo had difficulty articulating what he thought the impact his arrest and conviction had caused on the West Brandywine community.

“What have I done?” he asked. “I stayed away (from meetings). I don’t believe I’ve been arrogant to anybody. I’m not there. I’m just trying to do my job.”

Rambo also suggested in a letter to Mahon that the township administrator who reported the false paperwork could have kept the matter in-house by complaining to township authorities rather than bringing it to the district attorney’s office.

That, he suggested, would have saved the township, the DA, and the courts, “undue expenditures.”

Mahon suggested Rambo was a polarizing force in the township, especially if he were to continue as an employee of an independent agency such as the municipal authority. His presence creates an “us versus them” attitude among residents that either support Rambo or oppose him, the judge said.

“It might be time to bow out and let the progress of time move on,” said Mahon, who noted that the township is in the process of determining whether to dissolve the municipal authority because of Rambo’s employment there. “The people of the township deserve no less.”

Rambo was convicted at trial in May on four counts of forgery and four counts of theft. He was acquitted on a fifth count of theft, involving movie tickets from the township that he allegedly took and did not pay for.

Rambo was accused of filing falsified paperwork to the township administration so he could get reimbursement for a dental visit, for doctor’s office visits and prescriptions for his son and daughter, and for pharmacy bills. The records were purported to be actual receipts from the medical providers but, the jury found, were actually forged.

All totaled, the bills came to less than $400.

Pierce, in asking Mahon to sentence Rambo to prison, said the size of the theft should not matter.

“He was given a position of trust, and he breached that trust,” the prosecutor said. “One dollar taken is too many, especially when it comes from (township taxpayers.) He dipped into every single person’s pocket.

“There has to be some level of deterrence,” Pierce said. “If someone in his position of responsibility takes money and gets a slap on the wrist, then what is that going to say to the next guy?”

But defense attorney Bruce Laverty asked Mahon to consider a probationary sentence for his client. He said Rambo’s work on behalf of the community should count against his criminal behavior and in favor of probation.

“Look at everything Ron has done helping the community,” Laverty, himself a West Bradford supervisor, argued. “He has saved a lot of money for West Brandywine. And he is going to be dealing with these things for the rest of his life.”

Laverty, in addition, pointed to the climate of blame that had swirled around Rambo’s case. “It is obvious there is a political motivation behind this whole situation. There is a split in the township, and there is a lot going on, outside, surrounding this situation.”

Rambo received letters of support from his wife, and from former colleagues like Douglas Hanley of Uwchlan and Jack Hines of West Bradford. No one outside his family, however, came to show support or speak on his behalf.

On the other side, about a half dozen current West Brandywine employees and residents, including Supervisor Douglas Smith, appeared in court to support the prosecution’s stance.

“I don’t think he feels remorse for what he has done,” said Carrie Pike, the financial administrator who caught the improper reimbursements, in a letter to Mahon that Pierce read. “He only has remorse for getting caught.